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The Seattle bikers disappear when it's cold and rainy. In Amsterdam, the bikers are more sensible. They wear street clothes, and ride heavy bikes suitable for

The Seattle bikers disappear when it's cold and rainy. In Amsterdam, the bikers are more sensible. They wear street clothes, and ride heavy bikes suitable for street clothes and casual use. In Seattle, it has to be a $$$$ racing bike and one has to wear a tour de france spandex outfit. It's the law.

jvolkman 8y ago
Amsterdam is also flatter than Seattle. Heavy bikes (without assist) and street clothes don't work as well on large hills.
- fyfy18 8y ago
  A racing bike for commuting isn't that sensible an option either though. Unless you race in your spare time and want to get miles on the bike, a hybrid or touring bike will be a lot more comfortable and durable on city roads.
  - jvolkman 8y ago
    People don't actually commute on racing bikes in Seattle all that often. At least not the ones I see. Touring bikes, cyclocross, and similar with slightly larger tires and often disc brakes seem more common.
- apathy 8y ago
  Where are the hills in Seattle? It may not be as flat as Amsterdam, but it certainly isn’t San Francisco (or even LA, for that matter). I had the good fortune to essentially never get in a car in Seattle — I always took the subway, or the trolley, or walked. Granted I only ever spent a lot of time at Amazon and the Hutch, most everywhere beyond walking distance of south lake union or the subway is a blank spot on the map to me. But it seemed like a pretty casual place to bike commute. I rode to work most every day when I lived in SF, and in DC, and for a while in LA. Perversely, it was always safest where the traffic was worst (gridlocked) as drivers couldn’t get going fast enough to severely injure me then. Northern Virginia by contrast was terrifying — soccer moms barreling around at 70mph in SUVs while on cell phones. I think it’s a cultural issue — that wouldn’t fly in the Netherlands.
  - jvolkman 8y ago
    "Capitol Hill", "First Hill", "Beacon Hill", "Queen Anne Hill". Seattle has a lot of hills, especially if you're traveling east-west. They're called drumlins: https://youtu.be/oSSxdogrv1s?t=190 https://youtu.be/oSSxdogrv1s?t=190
- skookumchuck 8y ago
  I used to ride to work in Seattle, about 5 miles with one hill. I rode my ancient 10-speed I'd had since a teen, and wore street clothes. It was before the silly bike madness rolled over the city. I first noticed it when I invited my gf out for a ride, and she had to go buy a special bike outfit first.
grogenaut 8y ago
I'm glad Amsterdam is superior at biking. Not sure why you're randomly attacking Seattle. Every ride you remove from a car is a good thing. If people are riding half the year that's better than driving the full year. I've biked to work for years, always just wore bike knickers and a tshirt. Bike jacket for the rain.
- skookumchuck 8y ago
  I live in Seattle, and there's a stark contrast between the Amsterdam bike culture and the Seattle one. It's as I said. Yes, I'll pass someone once in a while on a bike in Seattle in street clothes, maybe one in twenty. The rest are in logo spandex. The ratio is reversed in Amsterdam. Nobody wears a helmet in Amsterdam, either. Yes, I know you do :-) Make that one in a hundred. They're riding a sturdy bike often with a basket in front for the groceries. I've never seen a basket on a Seattle bike. After all, you never see a basket on the TdF.
  - sjoerdsjoerd 8y ago
    Your argument is disingenuous because you're comparing apples to oranges. In Amsterdam, and in all of Holland, riding a bike is simply the first mode of transportation we think of. Wanna go to the supermarket? We just go outside and grab our bikes and we're off, no second thoughts about it. This is exactly like how Americans would just grab their keys and get in their car, no second thoughts about it. I'm guessing the reason you only see people in road bikes and spandex in the US are 1) confirmation bias because you just don't notice the people who ride the city share bikes or the you dismiss people entirely for being hipsters riding fixies and so on, and 2) because riding a bike isn't a mode of transportation in the US. #2 is the big thing though. Most Americans I have ever met think that bicycles are primarily for exercising or for leisure, but few will say it's a mode of transportation. In Holland bicycling is the primary mode of transportation. Also we don’t have helmuts because we’ve grown up in a society where people don’t get angry at you for riding your bike. Where people don’t run you off the road for laughs. Where people won’t speed off and disappear if they crash into you. Where people have been trained to pay attention to bicyclists from the moment they can walk outdoors. A friend recently came to visit me here in Holland. She’s German, so you might assume that she’s used to bicyclists because she’s European or whatever. That assumption would be wrong because I had to grab her by her arms so many times to get her to stop walking because she just was not raised in a culture where you pay attention to bicyclists. Had I not grabbed her arms to stop her all those times she would have stepped out onto a bicycle path and gotten run over. This is the difference between bicycling in Holland and the world, and it makes no sense to compare Seattle and Amsterdam like you are.
seattle_spring 8y ago
I'd gladly bike in the rain if there was better infrastructure to South Seattle. Sharing a lane the entire way to downtown though? No thanks.
- skookumchuck 8y ago
  Bike fenders are not allowed in Seattle, since they weigh too much. So in the rain you get to enjoy the mud stripe up your back. And the brakes don't work when wet, either, which is fun on the hills.

jvolkman 8y ago

Amsterdam is also flatter than Seattle. Heavy bikes (without assist) and street clothes don't work as well on large hills.

fyfy18 8y ago
A racing bike for commuting isn't that sensible an option either though. Unless you race in your spare time and want to get miles on the bike, a hybrid or touring bike will be a lot more comfortable and durable on city roads.
- jvolkman 8y ago
  People don't actually commute on racing bikes in Seattle all that often. At least not the ones I see. Touring bikes, cyclocross, and similar with slightly larger tires and often disc brakes seem more common.
apathy 8y ago
Where are the hills in Seattle? It may not be as flat as Amsterdam, but it certainly isn’t San Francisco (or even LA, for that matter). I had the good fortune to essentially never get in a car in Seattle — I always took the subway, or the trolley, or walked. Granted I only ever spent a lot of time at Amazon and the Hutch, most everywhere beyond walking distance of south lake union or the subway is a blank spot on the map to me. But it seemed like a pretty casual place to bike commute. I rode to work most every day when I lived in SF, and in DC, and for a while in LA. Perversely, it was always safest where the traffic was worst (gridlocked) as drivers couldn’t get going fast enough to severely injure me then. Northern Virginia by contrast was terrifying — soccer moms barreling around at 70mph in SUVs while on cell phones. I think it’s a cultural issue — that wouldn’t fly in the Netherlands.
- jvolkman 8y ago
  "Capitol Hill", "First Hill", "Beacon Hill", "Queen Anne Hill". Seattle has a lot of hills, especially if you're traveling east-west. They're called drumlins: https://youtu.be/oSSxdogrv1s?t=190 https://youtu.be/oSSxdogrv1s?t=190
skookumchuck 8y ago
I used to ride to work in Seattle, about 5 miles with one hill. I rode my ancient 10-speed I'd had since a teen, and wore street clothes. It was before the silly bike madness rolled over the city. I first noticed it when I invited my gf out for a ride, and she had to go buy a special bike outfit first.

grogenaut 8y ago

I'm glad Amsterdam is superior at biking. Not sure why you're randomly attacking Seattle. Every ride you remove from a car is a good thing. If people are riding half the year that's better than driving the full year. I've biked to work for years, always just wore bike knickers and a tshirt. Bike jacket for the rain.

skookumchuck 8y ago
I live in Seattle, and there's a stark contrast between the Amsterdam bike culture and the Seattle one. It's as I said. Yes, I'll pass someone once in a while on a bike in Seattle in street clothes, maybe one in twenty. The rest are in logo spandex. The ratio is reversed in Amsterdam. Nobody wears a helmet in Amsterdam, either. Yes, I know you do :-) Make that one in a hundred. They're riding a sturdy bike often with a basket in front for the groceries. I've never seen a basket on a Seattle bike. After all, you never see a basket on the TdF.
- sjoerdsjoerd 8y ago
  Your argument is disingenuous because you're comparing apples to oranges. In Amsterdam, and in all of Holland, riding a bike is simply the first mode of transportation we think of. Wanna go to the supermarket? We just go outside and grab our bikes and we're off, no second thoughts about it. This is exactly like how Americans would just grab their keys and get in their car, no second thoughts about it. I'm guessing the reason you only see people in road bikes and spandex in the US are 1) confirmation bias because you just don't notice the people who ride the city share bikes or the you dismiss people entirely for being hipsters riding fixies and so on, and 2) because riding a bike isn't a mode of transportation in the US. #2 is the big thing though. Most Americans I have ever met think that bicycles are primarily for exercising or for leisure, but few will say it's a mode of transportation. In Holland bicycling is the primary mode of transportation. Also we don’t have helmuts because we’ve grown up in a society where people don’t get angry at you for riding your bike. Where people don’t run you off the road for laughs. Where people won’t speed off and disappear if they crash into you. Where people have been trained to pay attention to bicyclists from the moment they can walk outdoors. A friend recently came to visit me here in Holland. She’s German, so you might assume that she’s used to bicyclists because she’s European or whatever. That assumption would be wrong because I had to grab her by her arms so many times to get her to stop walking because she just was not raised in a culture where you pay attention to bicyclists. Had I not grabbed her arms to stop her all those times she would have stepped out onto a bicycle path and gotten run over. This is the difference between bicycling in Holland and the world, and it makes no sense to compare Seattle and Amsterdam like you are.

seattle_spring 8y ago

I'd gladly bike in the rain if there was better infrastructure to South Seattle. Sharing a lane the entire way to downtown though? No thanks.

skookumchuck 8y ago
Bike fenders are not allowed in Seattle, since they weigh too much. So in the rain you get to enjoy the mud stripe up your back. And the brakes don't work when wet, either, which is fun on the hills.